Officials Move To Regulate Outdoor Burning

11/16/09 7:50AM
David Sommerstein

(Host) For
generations, rural residents of the Northeast burned everything from leaves and
brush to garbage and tires to save on trash pickup.

As of this fall, all
states in the region are regulating open burning - not only to prevent
wildfires, but to keep toxic smoke from polluting the region's air.

As part of a
collaboration with Northeast public radio stations, North Country Public
Radio's David Sommerstein reports that convincing people to obey the law is an
ongoing effort.

(Sommerstein) Larry
Lago is burning down an old wood shed outside his mother's house in northern New York state. A cardboard barrel and some branches are piled
on top.

(Lago) "It costs so much. It would cost a lot to get
rid of it in a landfill. If you're able to burn it, it's best to burn it. But
they're making things so tough, you can't do that."

(Sommerstein) Lago
says he got the OK from the local fire department. But he still has the
sheepish grin of someone who knows he's skirting the law.

In many places, burn
piles and burn barrels are a rural tradition.

(Soper) "I still burn my papers. That's all I burn is
papers. I do not burn trash."

(Sommerstein) Not far
from Lago, Phil Soper says he's not about to give it up. He's burned stuff at
his hunting cabin for as long as he can remember.

(Soper) "And it's back in the woods about a mile and
we have two burnin' barrels there and it's all contained. We never burn when
it's dry. We always make sure we got water with us when we do burn. And we stay
there until the fire's out."

(Sommerstein) But
researchers have learned that open burning is not benign. Burn piles combust at
low temperatures. They release particles into the air that can cause asthma.
Much of the paper in today's waste stream contains toxic inks, glues, or
coatings. Burning plastics is the worst.

David Carpenter is a
public health researcher at SUNY Albany. He says backyard burning produces a
noxious cloud of toxic chemicals, including dioxin. It can spread far beyond
the burn pile itself.

(Carpenter) "It goes into the air. It deposits on the
garden vegetables. It deposits on the grass that the cows eat. It gets into our
food supply. Dioxin causes cancer and we must get dioxin out of the food
supply."

(Sommerstein) The
Environmental Protection Agency says backyard trash burning is the single
biggest source of dioxin emissions in the country.

New
York recently
joined the rest of the Northeast in banning trash burning. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and now New
York also
prohibit burning leaves. Many states require a permit even to torch brush and
downed trees.

But spreading the word
is an ongoing effort. New
Hampshire
produced these public service announcements.

(Ad) "You wouldn't dump your trash on your neighbor's
lawn. So why would you put it in your neighbor's air?"

(Kessler) "We've prosecuted cases for people who
illegally burn a few tires that they have sitting around or they save their
plastic milk bottles and plastic detergent bottles that, they're actually
recyclable and they burn them."

(Sommerstein) The
biggest complaint about the burning restrictions is cost. Trash pickup can be
expensive. Phil Soper, the guy who burns paper at his hunting camp, says the
burn bans just create other problems.

(Soper) "The landfill, or wherever they're taking it
is going to be so full in a year's time, they will have to do something
different. It's gonna cost us taxpayers big, big money."

(Sommerstein) Even so,
environmental officials say any waste that's not burned is pollution kept out
of everyone's air.

For VPR News, I'm
David Sommerstein.

(Host) Northeast
Environmental coverage is part of NPR's Local News Initiative. It is funded, in
part, by a grant from United Technologies.